From Our Community to Yours: Rural Best Perspectives on Psychology Practice, Training, and Advocacy

Rural populations as small communities requiring sensitivity to rural culture have received increased attention with professional psychology's commitment to underexamined aspects of multiculturalism including geographic location. This article presents multidisciplinary approaches to service provision and training as natural models in rural and frontier communities and addresses the need for psychologists to move out of a monoculture model of training only in psychology to better serve rural consumers of mental health services. Overviews of rural health curriculum and training models as well as new health delivery options developing in nonmetropolitan areas such as prescriptive authority for psychology are provided. Suggestions are offered for state and territorial psychological associations regarding the needs of rural psychologists.